The leader of Maryland’s House of Delegates is pushing her colleagues on redistricting, saying she is “eager” and “willing” to consider redrawing congressional lines to help match changes made in GOP-controlled states.

House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones’ comments come after Gov. Wes Moore said “now is the time” to start having conversations about redistricting in Maryland.

Moore told Politico he’s “ready,” “eager” and “willing” to partner with the General Assembly to ensure voters have fair maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But Moore has yet to call on lawmakers to take action.

“I agree with Gov. Moore’s recent comments that now is the time to have conversations about redistricting in Maryland. We’ve been having those conversations in the House,” Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, told The Banner. “He has a ready and an eager and a willing partner in me.”

States typically redraw congressional lines every 10 years to conform with the Census. But Republican-majority states have started off-cycle redistricting at the urging of President Donald Trump to boost the GOP’s chances in the 2026 midterm elections.

In response, Democratic-led states sprung into action over the summer after Texas proposed redrawing favorable Republican districts in five House races. California countered with a ballot measure that, if passed in November, could move five seats into the Democratic column.

Legislatures in Missouri, Ohio, Indiana and Florida, all majority-GOP, have begun examining laws and boundary lines.

Maryland is one of a handful of Democratic-led states that could revise maps to check the GOP-led moves, and Jones said the conversation in her chamber has started.

Moore told reporters Wednesday, if other states are remapping, “Maryland should not just sit on our hands.”

“I am very firm on this. If we are going to have states in midcycle, in mid-decade, determining whether or not they have fair maps or not, then so will Maryland — then we should have that conversation too,” the Democrat said.

The legislative session doesn’t start until January. But lawmakers in both chambers are already floating plans.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but he showed measured restraint in remarks last month.

The Baltimore Democrat told online news outlet Maryland Matters that redistricting “should be the absolute last option on the table.”

“If we are out here changing the rules every two years, it’s hard to give people a lot of faith in the future of democracy,” he said.

Maryland’s Republicans — already disproportionately underrepresented in the congressional delegation — have opposed the idea of redistricting now. Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey has called it “reckless, shameless, and a transparent grab for partisan advantage.”

One chamber can move forward on redistricting plans by introducing and passing maps for the other to consider. Del. David Moon said the Maryland House is ready to start talks.

He has Jones’ full support, he said, and is “guaranteeing that we are going to have a legislative conversation about both a new map and a proposal to change Maryland’s redistricting process going forward.”

The Montgomery County Democrat proposed a plan over the summer that would trigger an off-cycle redistricting process in Maryland if any other state did so first. As states such as Texas have redrawn their political maps, Moon said, Maryland should ramp up the conversation.

Meanwhile, he said Congress should ban the practice of mid-decade redistricting. But until it does, Moon said, “we Democrats better not be chumps. We’re being bullied here.”

The last time Maryland’s districts were redrawn after the 2020 Census, Republicans won a court challenge. A judge called the map an “extreme gerrymander” — a term describing a map manipulated to benefit one party.

State Democrats, back then, had attempted to make Rep. Andy Harris’ majority-Republican district more competitive by extending it across the Chesapeake Bay to wrap in some of bluer Anne Arundel County.

After the court ruling, leaders in Annapolis came up with a map with more geographically compact districts that still yielded a 7-1 split among the House members in 2022 and 2024.

Maryland Democrats in Congress support national, nonpartisan redistricting and have sponsored legislation to make that happen.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, has championed a measure in the House to task an independent commission with redistricting.

Similar efforts through the years have been blocked by Republicans in Congress, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said, because the results of such a redrawing would work against them.

But because Republican-led state legislatures have started carving out districts in their favor, he said, Maryland should look at doing the same.

“I’m against unilateral disarmament,” he said.

Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.